Dr Shakir Ahmed Shahid
14th of August is the most fateful day of our national history. On this day our forefathers infixed the signboard of “Home” on this piece of land. However the down payment for getting this home was a river of blood drained out of massacred bodies. There raged a violent storm of death and destruction before the rise of first dawn on Pakistan. Millions got displaced, thousands got slaughtered and countless lost families. Mothers saw their crying children getting cut into pieces; unborn infants were chalked out of wriggling wombs and put on spears, and daughters were abducted before the eyes of dying fathers.
However the installments to be paid for the “home” were far from over. And when resource starved Pakistan was busy in healing the wounds of battered migrants, in October 1947, enemy occupied the State of Jammu and Kashmir and started the same dance of goddess of death. Above 70,000 Muslims were massacred in Jammu region between 20 Oct. to 9 Nov. 1947, and millions were driven out from their homes to die in freezing cold, and this very carnage was aided and abetted by the forces of Maharaja of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir, which by all standards of law, traditions, geography and history is the natural part of Pakistan, was occupied by the enemy on pretext of a piece of paper signed by a fleeing ex-sovereign. Legally Maharaja had been stripped of his sovereign status as he had lost effective control over the state. By all principles of international law dealing with state sovereignty and the transactions between the sovereigns the Maharaja of State of Jammu and Kashmir was legally incompetent to enter into any kind of instrument on behalf of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
And then it came 1971 when our country was cut into two by the enemy. Admitted that many failures enlisted on our part but it was the military intervention of the blood thirsty neighbor which made the severing of East Pakistan possible. It was said that “Two Nation Theory” got drowned in Bay of Bengal but history proved the veracity and virility of two nation theory when our severed arm appeared as a separate state and did not merge with the enemy. As a proof of her omnipotent animosity toward the very existence of Pakistan, 2500 km2 of Siachen glacier was occupied in 1984 by enemy forces.
With the grace of Allah Almighty, despite all odds and adversaries, Pakistan survived, evolved and got recognition in the community of nations. Pakistan played a very critical role in many geo-strategic changes of tectonic level. Pakistan developed nuclear capability despite meager resources and further developed various delivery systems. Achievements of Pakistan in development of various strategic platforms are recognized by the world.
Pakistan is not only the real legatee to glorious Muslim Rule of Sultans of Delhi and the Mughal Emperors of South Asia but also the sole territorial successor to the great non-Hindu Indus Valley Civilization. Due to thousands of years old wisdom inherited from territorial geography of Pakistan, and the unique cultural heritage shared from Turko-Persian Central Asia, the people of Pakistan are intrinsically brave, wise, sober, and confident, and this reality is acknowledged by all civilized nations of the globe.
Most of the races inhabiting Pakistan are martial races and no wonder that Pakistanis have an inbuilt tendency to act real, stand for principles, think about the unprivileged, and fight for the oppressed. Pakistan is a country who stood for the cause and call of Ummah from day one of its inception, and its brave sons have reached every corner of the world to help innocent victims. However, unfortunately Pakistan has not realized the glory it deserves, and what its exceptionally intelligent people are capable of achieving.
Despite all past glory and unmatched potential of its people Pakistan is still a developing country whose economy is in shambles. Pakistan is on the gray list of FATF for so many years and danger of getting black listed is looming on the heads. Green passport has become a symbol of suspicion in the globe and third last in the world’s ranking. World considers us as one of the most dangerous countries on the globe. The performance of the education field is so pathetic that Pakistan is the world’s second country having the highest number of out-of-school children.
In the social landscape the situation is even bleaker. Social audit and the values have evaporated from social fabric. Despite being Islamic republic, according to Google, Pakistan tops the list of most porn-searching countries. Due to crippled, ineffective and exploitative governance structures masses are getting disgruntled. Patriotism and nationhood have weakened to such dangerous proportions that simple folks are becoming victim to poisons of distractive and destabilizing narratives. On intellectual scale situation is so depressing that in the final quarter of last century not a single notable artist, poet, scientist, leader, philosopher appeared in the national arena.
Is this the irony of fate that a nation consisting of 220 million heads has become so worthless on the international theater that pieces of sand have become the stumbling block of our journey? Is not this the lowest water mark in national pride that organizations that were founded by Pakistan are not paying any heed to concerns of Pakistan? Has not our international effectiveness reached its lowest ebb that the dance of goddess of death is going on in Kashmir for decades and no one is listening to their cries?
On seeing this enigmatic situation one thing becomes clear that neither the past of this soil nor the present ecosystem is marred with any deficiency which may be blamed for the current situation. Pakistan is a country of many rivers and just in the Indus basin river system 140 million acre foot water flows annually. Pakistani is blessed with four weathers, vast fertile plains, diverse fauna and flora, beautiful mountains, and bio-rich marshes. The land underneath our feet gave birth to the civilization of Indus 8000 years ago and since then is continuously supporting human societies with the result that today one-fourth of the world population is living in south Asia.
It appears that the paradox of Pakistan lies in the cognitive body of its inhabitants. There is some disease in the cognitive body which has corrupted everything. This disease has corrupted morals, this disease has corrupted financial matters, and this disease has corrupted intellect. Due to this disease transactions of all kinds of capitals have got corrupted. And the name of this disease which has infiltrated bodies, minds, organs, tissues, cells, molecules, atoms, and quarks is uncertainty whose social name is insecurity and fear.
We all are victims of uncertainty and insecurity. Though the whole universe including all biological life and the humans are destined to fight with this demonic reality called uncertainty; however, we Pakistanis are a special victim to this demon due to placement of Pakistani nation and the State in a peculiar matrix of historical, geographic, political, and social attractors (ranged variables). Uncertainty is measured by a legendary parameter called entropy which is a concept common to theoretics of physics, chemistry and the statistics.
The sense of insecurity takes implantation and grows in the cognitive womb of humans. Consequently a spectrum of modulated behavior appears in such humans. However, generally four kinds of behavioral displays are exhibited by such pregnant fellows: 1. Hoarding of money, things, and tags 2. Communicative corruption like faking, lies, and fraud etc 3. Moral corruption in the form of conduct unwarranted by social and moral codes. 4. Intellectual and creative sterility on individual and coactive scales. Remember that reproduction is a principal mean of overcoming insecurity so hyper reproductive and romantic behavior is also an indication of deep stress of insecurity present in the cognitive body of the subject.
Spectrum of corrupt modulated behavior not only destroys the balance of individuals and their evolved clusters like family, society and the nation but also deteriorates the very structures of public administration and governance. On additive levels various combinations of this corrupt behavioral spectrum gives rise to a plethora of other social infectious diseases. Our society is unlucky in a sense that there are no hospitals, medicines and doctors available for such infected poor fellows. And the damage is further increased due the fact that traditional ayurvedic procedures of treatment for such patients have already been abandoned by the society due to dynamics of modernity.
The fetus of insecurity in consonance with modulated behavior results in a further complication in form of appearance of guilt constructs. These creeping worms of guilt in subconscious and conscious parts of the cognitive body act like silent killers which devour the energy flesh of the cognitive mind. In an overwhelming majority of people the energy budget consumed by these worms is either equal to or more than the surplus energy budget available in the cognitive body of mind. Actually the surplus energy available in the cognitive body is the real birth resource for constructs of creativity. However in societies marred with cognitive insecurity this surplus energy is expended in guilt management and consequently the societies become intellectually sterile.
The real problem with Pakistan is the social manifestation of multi-headed multi-armed demon of cognitive insecurity. This demon has been produced by a complex matrix of global, regional, domestic and historical circumstances and its roots are anchored up to physical chemistry levels of the ecosystem. However a major reason for the appearance of this cognitive demon is the overwhelming pressure of information onslaughts on the minds of people originating from various sources.
For realizing the real glory of Pakistan the nation should be freed from the clutches of this demon of insecurity. And as the major life source for this demon comes from various adverse information regimes hence not only a well thought out strategy should be adopted to shield the people from such fatiguing, distractive, destabilizing and the weaponized information narratives but also a comprehensive information spectrum at national level should be synthesized and administered to the people.
Dr Shakir Ahmad Shahid, Ph.D, PSP, is a Postdoct Fulbright Alumnus in Forensic Science and Criminology, who has served in various fields like Policing, Investigation, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism on policy and operational levels as a Senior Police Officer and Director (counter terrorism). He has also worked in fields of Education, Investment and Rural Development as a civil servant, and in the field of Agriculture as a farmer. Dr. Shahid holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry with research publications in fields of bio-materials, bio-energy, polymers and forensic spectroscopy. He also holds the degrees of Master in Psychology, M.Sc Chemistry, L.L.B, and B.Sc (Biology), along with qualifications in fields of crime management, police command, public administration, international law, history, forestry, and agriculture. In addition to being PhD Research Scholar in Criminology he is a passionate researcher in theoretics of complex systems, energy evolution, negentropes, information, cyborgology, socionics, sustainability, human behavior, history, national narrative, social re-engineering, policing, intelligence, governance, national security, electro-magnetic spectrum, and forensic evidence. He can be reached at [email protected]
